Let me goTo rhyme with holy foolsWhose only rule of poetry is flowWhere verse is freeAnd wordsmiths badder than the worst of meWhere churches break their idols on the spines of misfitsWhere mystics search for final truthsAnd the red-eyed and the sleep-deprived cut tracks in vinyl boothsAnd grey-bearded visionaries spit Burroughs on the shrine of youth

Let me goWide-eyed where dragons rage and rappers raveAnd let them slay my innocenceAnd draw my bloodAnd let them flood my sensesWith the sweet perfume of painWith tastes that drain the feeling from my face,Erasing every memory with outlines traced in ecstasyAnd lace my veins with the sensation of aThousand butterflies emerging to embrace their only day.

Let me goTo suck the sacred poison from intoxicated skiesPhilosophise with rent boysHigh five the hell-bent and the heaven-sentAnd stent the city’s arteriesWith sycophantic merengues to the high priests of the moshpitAnd wash the slack-skinned strippersWith oils and scents and the unspent dreams of the departed.

Let me goDown belowWhere the future hangs lowAnd your heart’s so full of junk that it bleeds brown upon the snowI will hold the shell that’s slowly growing coldThat sheds the soul refusing to grow oldExpelling prayers through staring eyesWhose fires are darkening to coalsLike two black moonsThrowing blacker shadows on the bloodied snowThat whisperLet me go

Published with permission from Dan's forthcoming CD and pamphlet "Last Man Out of Eden"